At 100: Celebrating 100 years of Indian Art History through FN Souza, VS Gaitonde and Ram Kumar

Dadiba Pundole remains one of the most respected gallerists for Modern Indian Art. He is well known for his in-depth knowledge on the Modernists including Akbar Padamsee, S.H. Raza, Ram Kumar, M.F. Husain and V.S. Gaitonde. Pundole Art Gallery began representing these artists in the 1960s and added a new generation of artists when Dadiba took over the gallery in 1991. Dadiba was a consultant at Sotheby's for their Modern Indian Art sales from 2005 to 2010 before opening Pundole's, the auction house, in 2011. Pundole's are well known for their auctions of Modern and Classical Indian Art as well as Estate sales that span several categories within the Decorative Arts. He is currently on the advisory board of the Jehangir Nicholson Art Foundation, and he has also served on the advisory board of the National Gallery of Modern Art, Mumbai.

Curator, educator and art critic, Roobina Karode is the Director & Chief Curator at the Kiran Nadar Museum of Art (KNMA), New Delhi, India, since it opened its doors in 2010. She has post-graduate specializations in Art History and in Education. Karode has over the years curated several significant exhibitions both within India and internationally, including seminal retrospectives on the art practice of Nasreen Mohamedi, Arpita Singh, Jayashree Chakravarty and MF Hussain. Karode has taught Art History, both Indian Modern and Western art from 1990 to 2006, at various institutions in Delhi, mainly the School of Arts & Aesthetics in JNU, the National Museum Institute, the College of Art and the Jamia Millia Islamia University. She was awarded the Fulbright Fellowship in 2000 and the Ford Teaching Fellowship in 2005-7. In 2019, Karode was the curator for the Indian Pavilion at the 58th Venice Biennale. Karode has been a committee member of the Asia Society India for the past three years.

Dara K Mehta is a director at Darashaw & Co., one of India’s oldest investment banking and asset management houses, founded in 1926. Dara acquired an interest in art and antiquities from childhood influenced by the the family’s interest in the subject and started collecting art while still in college. Having grown up in Mumbai with the progressives being an influence, he started collecting with this group. Over the past two decades the Darashaw Collection has come to comprise of certain artists which are represented in depth across their oeuvre while others are represented under one or two stand out works. Even though the emphasis of the collection is on the modern it spans centuries from Gandharas to contemporary art across South Asia.

Kamini Sawhney is a distinguished museum professional with over 15 years of experience. Elected to the Board of CIMAM (International Committee for Museums and Collections of Modern Art) in 2022, she is the first Indian in this role, advocating for the perspectives of the global South. As the founding Director of the Museum of Art & Photography (MAP) in Bengaluru, Kamini led its launch and vision, creating an inclusive space to democratize art access. MAP’s opening exhibitions, especially the critically acclaimed Visible/Invisible on women in art, reflect her commitment to diverse narratives. Kamini also launched MAP as a digital-first museum in 2020, connecting global audiences through innovative technology initiatives. A vocal ambassador for Indian arts, she has presented at esteemed venues like Stanford University, Culture & Museums International Tech Forum in Malaga and Serendipity Arts Festival. She has also participated in international forums like the Museum Leadership House in Nice and the Museums of Tomorrow Roundtable, San Francisco, focusing on culture and technology. Formerly, she was head of the Jehangir Nicholson Art Foundation at CSMVS, Mumbai, fostering collaborations with institutions like Tate and the British Museum. She was one of the first Brooks fellows, selected to do a fellowship at Tate Modern(2014). Her career began in journalism, where she led NDTV’s Mumbai bureau as Bureau Chief.